How Rush Works

Rush schedule

  • Saturday, September 2nd, 2023, 12 pm: Formal Recruitment Begins

  • Friday, September 8th, 2022, 8 am: Bids for Joining Released

  • Saturday, September 9th, 2022, 8 am: Bids for Joining can be Accepted

  • Wednesday, September 13th, 2022, 5pm: Earliest Time that Bids can Close

What actually happens?

Throughout your time at MIT up until now, you may have met some of the fraternity members on campus through Campus Preview Weekend (CPW), recruiting trips for sports, or during the weeks leading up to the school year. What makes Recruitment different than any of these times is that the community is opening its doors and looking to find new members to join our fraternities!

Formal Recruitment will open at 12 pm on the Saturday before Labor Day, with our annual Kresge Kickoff. At this event, we invite all freshmen and upperclassmen that are interested in joining a fraternity to come out to Kresge Oval and to meet members of our 25 fraternities on campus. It is a great opportunity to hear about as many of our members as you can, as it will be the only time at which all of them are gathered together with one purpose: to get to know you better. So stay a while, grab some recruitment schedules, and start thinking about what groups might be for you.

Throughout the rest of the following week, our fraternities will be hosting a myriad of events across nearly all of Massachusetts. The first day, Kickoff Day, is typically all in the fraternities’ houses - each will be having an open house throughout most of the day so you can explore the Back Bay, Kenmore, Cambridge, and Brookline and see as many of our chapters as possible. Moving forward, chapters will be holding events both in their houses and on excursions out of the city, to places like Cape Cod or Six Flags. Some events later in the week will also be run on an invite-only basis, where that individual chapter really sees potential in you and wants to get to know you more personally. Additionally, you do not have to worry about missing classes, there are no recruitment events scheduled during class hours when the semester begins, so you will be able to attend events and school with no issues.

Starting the next Friday, fraternities may begin to extend bids for joining, generally known as pledging, their organizations. These bids will then be open for acceptance starting the next morning. In the process of recruitment, you may receive only one bid, some may receive two, and some may even receive more, but there is a day in between extension and acceptance of bids, so that you have sufficient time to develop your thoughts before making the commitment. At any point between then and 5 pm on the next Wednesday (or later, if the particular organization allows it), you may accept your bid and become a part of your new fraternity!